MSN trimmed prices on its dial-up Internet service in what appears to be an attempt to compete more aggressively with America Online. Microsoft cut prices to $17.95 a month from $21.95 on its dial-up service. Subscribers who sign up before June 30 will get the first month of service for free. The $17.95 price applies only to new subscribers and will last one year. After that, the price will revert to the standard $21.95 price.

A District Court in California quashed an attempt by Microsoft to force Sun Microsystems and Oracle to provide documents in its battle with the European Commission. But judges in New York and Boston are still considering similar requests against IBM and Novell, respectively, as Microsoft fights against possible fines of up to 2 million euros ($2.4 million) a day for failing to carry out sanctions imposed by the Commission.

Microsoft has repackaged the hosted messaging service it acquired when it bought FrontBridge Technologies last year. The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker has rebranded the service "Exchange Hosted Services," crafting a new, per-user licensing model and future plans call for closer ties with Microsoft’s Exchange mail server, company representatives said in an interview Wednesday.

Microsoft served up the first test version of Windows Live Mail Desktop, a free Windows program that will let users manage multiple email accounts. The software is designed to work with Windows Live Mail, the successor to Hotmail that is also in beta testing. The move is a shift for the Hotmail business, which in the past, has charged users who wanted to read their mail using desktop software rather than a Web browser. In addition to working with multiple Windows Live Mail or Hotmail accounts, the new desktop software can be used to manage POP3 or IMAP accounts, potentially even Google’s Gmail, said Brooke Richardson, a lead product manager for the Windows Live Mail group.

Microsoft has delayed until early 2007 an update for Microsoft Virtual Server, a technology that lets a computer run multiple incarnations of Windows simultaneously. The SP1 update to Virtual Server 2005 R2 will include support for two chip features, Intel’s Virtualization and Advanced Micro Devices’ Virtualization, that ease the task. Previously it had been scheduled to arrive in the fourth quarter, but a Microsoft representative confirmed the slip. The postponement comes on the heels of Microsoft’s delays of Windows Vista and Office 2007.

The fight against spam, phishing and email fraud should focus on economic incentives and aiding law enforcement, according to attendees at a conference examining the problem. Speakers at MIT’s 2006 Spam Conference were notably cognizant of the recent proposals of white lists and AOL’s Goodmail, a pay per email service offering preferential treatment in email delivery for marketers. It is also one year since the implementation of Can-Spam, the federal law that sets email marketing standards and makes it less complicated for law enforcement to go after John Doe spammers.

Microsoft is moving full steam ahead with a plan to permanently modify the way Internet Explorer renders multimedia content on Web pages, but in what amounts to an admission that the changes could be disruptive, the software maker plans to give Web developers an extra 60 days to continue making preparations. The IE update, which results from a multimillion-dollar patent spat with Eolas Technologies, changes the way the browser handles ActiveX controls and could have a significant impact on how online advertising and streaming media content is delivered over the Internet.

FloSuite, global provider of Microsoft.NET Business Process Management software to professional services firms, announced the launch of FloSuite BPM V5–a major new software release. This latest release enables users to build, change and evolve business applications using non-programmatic tools within even shorter timescales and takes advantage of the very latest Microsoft technologies. The FloSuite V5 release has been built using the Microsoft.NET 2 framework and SQL Server 2005, and also exploits the very latest Microsoft Visio capabilities. FloSuite V5 features a new design environment utilizing the latest Microsoft Visio functionality, a new Microsoft Outlook Web Access-style client built on ASP.NET 2 and an enhanced process engine and XML handling capabilities, built on Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

Windows managers in small and mid-market IT shops will soon be able to purchase licensing for management products in a bundle. The inclusive offering from Microsoft, called System Center Standard Server Management License (SML), is an alternative to the current process of buying individual licenses for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, Systems Manager Server 2003 and Data Protection Manager 2006.

November 7 marked the beginning of the worldwide launch of Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and BizTalk Server 2006. The release to manufacturing of BizTalk Server 2006 underscores the latest product momentum and the broad customer availability for all three products in the marketplace since the November 7 launch. PressPass sat down with Steve Guggenheimer, general manager for Application Platform and Developer Marketing at Microsoft, to find out more.